


never saw the point of change

by Miss Tricks (MissTricks)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cooking, Gen, Slice of Life, author can't fluff, fluff?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 04:25:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13356456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissTricks/pseuds/Miss%20Tricks
Summary: Sakura works on her food pills.





	never saw the point of change

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Quitalea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quitalea/gifts).



_ " _ _ Naruto _ _ , Sasuke, Sai, and Sakura. As a team, in a polyamorous relationship. You don't have to have all four in whatever. That's just details to get you going. At the very least have Naruto or Sakura though. I like them best if you decide to do one on their own. Maybe just a random day in the life scene? Or them winding down after they just got back from a tough mission. Only include anything sexual for that if you are comfortable writing/drawing sex scenes. (I don't think anyone in our group isn't, but I should still say it just in case, lol  Other prompts...hmmm  maybe them playing as kids, or genin  Them all sleeping in a big puppy pile, or maybe a scene of how it leads to that for writing. Finally maybe some type of reunion scene? Like after Sasuke is finally back? or when Naruto returned from his training trip. Or maybe one or more of them had a really long mission they were gone on? Anyways, that's all the information I can think to include for whoever does mine." _

  
  


Four and a half minutes after the village's electrical grid was systematically blown up by a traitorous fuinjutsu consultant from the Daimyo's court, Yamato knocked on Sakura's window and announced, "This is your problem now," and dumped Sasuke and Sai in her brand new kitchen, in her brand new apartment, in Konoha's brand new medical district... which was a short walk away from the equally new (and rebuilt) shinobi district, and an even shorter walk away from the newest iteration of the Intelligence Division, where Sasuke had spent the past several months arrested, under heavy guard, while Kakashi dealt with the many -  _ many _  - shinobi forces that wanted Sasuke dead.

Sakura sighed.

Sai slipped his shoes off automatically, replacing them with house slippers that Sakura kept by the window, and eyed the kitchen with a visibly growing dread as he read off an internal script, "Sakura-san, sorry for disturbing you. Hokage-sama requested that the  _ Uchiha  _ be removed to house arrest. Now."

"And Sasuke has no house," Sakura finished for him, pieces of what Sai wasn't saying clicking into place for her.

Sasuke, unwise to the end, said, "I didn't know you cooked."

A Naruto-like malevolence began to grow in Sakura's heart as she turned her attention to him - empty sleeve pinned down underneath his cloak, and fringe growing over his eyes in a way that made her stomach flutter before she stomped on it - and then she glanced back at her kitchen, which was covered in cooking utensils, ingredients, recipe cards, and countless bowls of shredded, chopped, ground, and pulverized ingredients that ranged from vegetables and spices to dietary supplements and  pure, medical grade chemical compounds across every flat surface. The rice cooker had thankfully finished before the power cut out, but the boiling dumplings hadn't been so lucky - Sakura was hopeful that the water was still hot enough to finish cooking the dumplings, because otherwise she was going to wind up trying her hand at boiling the water with a fire jutsu, or even run down to her parents' house to borrow their almost-antique wood burning hot pot.

"I'm working on some new recipes. The Rinne Festival is coming up, and I wanted to try something new," Sakura said, keeping her tone light and not-at-all like Naruto when he was trying to pull a fast one. She hummed thoughtfully. "Since Naruto isn't here yet, you two can stand in for him as taste-testers."

Sakura saw the exact moment that Sai realized that the trash can was full of food pills. He blanched.

"Here, Sasuke!" Sakura grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and steered him to the stove, ignoring how he'd stiffened up before he let her move him. "You're good with fire jutsu, so keep this water boiling for me!"

Sasuke, bemused, obeyed within a few seconds, and held a small flame against the dumpling pot.

Satisfied, Sakura turned to Sai, "Do you know if Naruto was caught up in a mission? He was supposed to come back with some more ingredients to try."

Sai hesitated, and mulled over his response, which meant that Naruto probably  _ had _  gotten into trouble somehow. "He should be back soon," Sai eventually settled on.

"If he'll be done soon, could you send him a message that you and Sasuke are here, and that I'll need some more ingredients?" Sakura chose to have some faith in Naruto's judgment and not tell him what to pick up. At the very least if he forgot what he was doing or got distracted, he would turn up with the correct Ichiraku orders for everyone.

Sai obligingly pulled out a scroll with a messenger bird inked into it, and scrawled a quick note to Naruto as Sakura pulled out a stone plate and began to crush nuts into powder with her knuckles.

Ten minutes later, Sakura had retrieved the dumplings from Sasuke, and realized that neither the furnace nor the refrigerator were running while the electricity was out, and then gave up on the electricity coming back anytime soon when it began to snow and Naruto turned up with two grocery bags filled with bruised vegetables, tofu, and sauces, and a mournful expression that spoke of his inability to pass by Ichiraku.

"Right," Sakura sighed, pressing the bridge of her nose like Iruka sensei was sometimes prone to doing when he was exasperated with something-that-was-usually-named-Uzumaki, and thumped a skillet on the stove. "Sai, dishes. Naruto, mince. Sasuke, heat this pan."

Naruto mourned the ramen the entire thirty seconds that it took for him to mince his ingredients and place them in the appropriate recipe slots, and Sai and Sasuke obediently took everything Sakura gave them as she mixed and mashed in triple speed, coaxing Sasuke to produce a larger flame until he refused to burn her kitchen down. Sai scrubbed every dish put in front of him, and slowly withered into a resolved despair as Sakura quickly crafted no less than ten individual batches of food pills.

Behind Sakura's back, Naruto and Sai seemed to have come to an agreement to keep their silence on her cooking, sharing glances with each other, then flicking their eyes at the food pills as she pulled them from the pan, and then looking at Sasuke, who soundly ignored them, and maintained his flame perfectly evenly, despite how the control exercise was clearly wearing him down after months of restraint in the Intelligence Division. It almost made Sakura want to be merciful.

Sakura gathered up four food pills from separate batches, and passed them around.

"Test batch one," she announced, before biting into her own with determination.

She froze.

Sakura struggled to contain any reaction to the food pill as her three teammates watched her in horror.

It was  _ good _ .

Dry on the outside, sweet, syrupy, and  _ balanced _  on the inside - it was so good Sakura felt like she had won enough money to pay off all of Tsunade's gambling debts.

Sakura grimaced, trying not to celebrate, and glowered at Sai, who was clearly looking for a way out, until all three boys surrendered and took hesitant bites.

Naruto was the first to react with a moan. He chewed slowly, with his eyes closed, as though he were dying.

Sai took one bite and his eyes widened, and he held it in his mouth for several long seconds before he continued to chew -  _ without _  spitting it out this time, Sakura noted triumphantly.

"Sakura, it's  _ good _ !"

"This is a much more pleasant experience than last time," Sai concurred.

Sasuke slowly, pathetically bore his and Sakura watched him carefully, torn between vindictive glee and and much smaller, softer feelings that made her want to regret giving him  _ that _  particular food pill.

It was a sickly sweet, slightly sour, syrupy umeboshi based food pill - something that Sakura had thought she would like, but it had been too sweet even for her, which meant that it was leagues past what Sasuke would tolerate.

He looked slightly ill, with a tense expression around his eyes as he doggedly ate the rest of the food pill.

"...delicious," Sasuke lied, and Sakura let her satisfaction give way to soft and squishy feelings again.

"Ha! Even that jackass likes it!"

"Here," Sakura said over Naruto, grabbing a pill from another batch, "You'll probably like this one better."

Something between realization and knowing flickered in his otherwise blank expression, and he accepted the food pill, which a mixture of soft rice and dried, crunchy fish and tomatoes.  

Sakura let herself be filled with something like contentment as Sasuke munched through the food pill.

"It is very fortunate that you've made so many food pills," Sai said, "This way you don't have to cook for us until the electrical grid is rebuilt."

"...rebuilt?" Sakura asked.

"Yamato didn't tell you?" Naruto said, startled. " _This_  bastard burned down the power lines earlier when some asshole got the drop on Ibiki."

Sasuke didn't acknowledge Naruto, which was as good an admission of culpability as any.

Sakura closed her eyes, and breathed through a moment of pure aggravation.

"The power won't be back on tonight, then."

Outside, it began to snow harder.

Sasuke kept his mouth shut.

Sakura gathered herself. "I think I have enough spare blankets. If I don't, Naruto will run home, seal all of his up, and come back here."

"...what."

"You're spending the night, too."

"The power will be out for the rest of the week," Sai provided helpfully. "Hokage-sama wants to try to lay some security lines down."

"...it's December. Shouldn't he wait until spring?"

"The civilian sectors and the hospital will be up - the shinobi districts are the experimental areas so far," Sai reported.

Sakura sighed.

At least she had prepared enough in advance to have several extra futons to spare.

(By night two, a massive futon pallet had formed in the main room, and Sakura was forced to retreat to the pallet with all three of her teammates when the first Konoha blizzard in ten years kicked up overnight.

By night three, they had given up all pretenses and used Sasuke as a stove with no remorse, and poured themselves into the pallet in turn.

By night four, Sakura had developed some severe concerns regarding Sai's circulatory system and was experimenting with dressing him up in layers of winter clothing and force feeding him spicy food.

By night five, some poor ANBU team finally found the weather-nin who had been devastating Konoha with five feet of snow, and Kakashi authorized the powerlines to be restored to the shinobi district. He conveniently forgot to order Sasuke's return to the Intelligence Division, and Sasuke's house arrest at Sakura's apartment continued until spring, when she finally got sick of ANBU other than Sai and Yamato letting themselves in at all hours.)


End file.
